Hoseok is bored.

     Namjoon had gone to talk to the managers, Jungkook had shut himself in his room doing god knows what, and Seokjin had dragged Jimin to the store to help him with groceries. Taehyung was in the living room reading while Yoongi was in his room listening and working with beats. Hoseok observes Taehyung from where he was relaxing on the couch.

     I think Taehyung has read that already. Surely he prefers to do something with me than read that book again?

     Sure of himself, Hoseok gets up, walks behind where Taehyung is sitting on his chair, and wraps his arms around Taehyung while shouting, with plenty of aegyo, “Hobi-hyung’s bored! Do something with me!”

     Only to find that Taehyung is continuing to ignore him while reading the book. Hoseok pouts and says “Taehyuuuuunng, play with me!” while moving Taehyung from side to side. Taehyung is still lost in the book.

     Hoseok removes his hands and stands up straight. Does he even know I’m here? Hoseok decides to find out. “Taehyung!”

     Taehyung looks up. “Oh, hi hyung! What is it?”

     Only NOW he realized I was here?!? After what I’ve been doing for the last, like, 5 minutes!?!

     Hoseok decides to play it cool. “Taehyung, I’m bored, do you want to hang out with me? I’m down for whatever you want.” Hoseok knew it was risky, letting Taehyung choose whatever activity, because this was TAEHYUNG. But Hoseok was willing. He just hopes Taehyung couldn’t see how desperate Hoseok was for company.

     Taehyung gives him an apologetic smile. “Sorry, hyung. I just want to read this. I don’t really feel like being,” he looks at Hoseok for half a second, “energetic today.”

     “Oh.” Hoseok can feel his smile fading. He plasters it back on, but he knows it doesn’t reach his eyes. “That’s okay, I’ll just ask Yoongi-hyung.”

     Hoseok turns and moves to Yoongi and Seokjin’s room. “Good luck!” he hears from behind him. He continues on.

     Hoseok opens the door and enters, seeing Yoongi with his headphones on and looking at his laptop screen. Unlike his approach with Taehyung, he decides to be mature.

     “Hyung?” Hoseok asks hesitantly while lightly tapping Yoongi’s shoulder. “Do you maybe want to get some coffee with me, we could sit and talk and-”

     “Sorry Hoseok-ah, I’m busy, go play with one of the other kids,” Yoongi said, without ever moving his eyes from the laptop.

     “Ah, okay...” Hoseok says quietly, his smile quickly turning into a grimace. He leaves the room, deciding not to ask Jungkook since his mood has already hit bottom. Hoseok retreats to his and Jimin’s room and falls face first onto his bed. He grabs one of pillows and holds it to his chest, dwelling in the rock bottom of his mood. He doesn’t know why but he been feeling very… lonely, lately. He feels separated from the members, and he fears that the ARMYs don’t like him anymore. He just lets these dark thoughts swirl in his mind.

--------------------------

     A couple hours later, Hoseok is still on his bed. Everyone else has come back and has moved around. Hoseok knows because he’s heard everything happening around him.

     “Guys, dinner!” he hears Seokjin call. He regrettably drags himself off the bed and heads to the dining table where everyone’s sitting, ready to eat. He sits down, and puts some food on his plate, not even bothering to figure out what it was. He takes his chopsticks and starts eating. He’s not as talkative as normal, and if the others notice, they don’t mention it.

     “Hoseok,” Namjoon says. Hoseok looks up. Maybe he spoke too soon. His hopefulness starts to rise. They would have noticed how he’s down, and they would assure him everything’s fine. Then maybe they would spend more time with him. Namjoon continues, with Hoseok’s hopeful smile growing subtlety on his face.

     “This package came for you. I think it’s from one of the ARMYs,” Namjoon says, handing him a small package. Hoseok enthusiastic smile starts to slip as he tries to stop it.

     “Thanks,” he says. He stands, puts his plate in the sink, and retreats to his room, where sits on the bed. He looks at the small package in his hand. He sits up straight and gives a half smile. Well, look at this. I can’t say the ARMYs don’t care. His mood slightly higher, he opens the package to see a letter and something small wrapped in a tissue. He opens the tissue to see a small cookie wrapped in plastic. Aww, look how cute! It was a sugar cookie frosted with a base of magenta, with a circle at the top that had two dots inside its ring, and an X right below it, a couple of short lines connecting the two. Hoseok smiles broadly, and holds up the letter.

     Dear J-hope, he reads to himself, I love you so much! You are my bias! I really admire you for how hard you work, and I think you are underrated. Why don’t more people appreciate you? Why, the most appreciative thing about you is that you don’t take the easy route! And people with that skill should be worshipped! I made this cookie just for you. I can’t myself give you hugs and kisses, so I hope you take the X and O given to you on the cookie! Bangtan Fighting! With lots of love, your biggest fan.

     Hoseok smiles softly with the words of the sweet letter, and looks at the cookie again. So this is an X and an O to give me love? Well, at least this way my fan can’t get a restraining order. What a creative way to give hugs and kisses. He pops the cookie into his mouth and savors it, swallowing it, then going to do his other tasks. But if Hoseok had looked at the picture on the cookie as a whole instead of in parts, he would have seen the very clever way the seemingly innocent X and O formed a skull and crossbones.

-------------------------

     “Hey, hyung?” Jimin asks, sitting next to Namjoon on the living room couch.

     “Yes, Jimin-ah?”

     “Have you noticed how Hobi-hyung’s been, well, strange lately? He doesn’t talk very much, he barely eats, he doesn’t smile as much, and he’s a lot paler than I remember.”

     Namjoon looks at him with confusion clearly etched on his face. “Jimi-”

     “Look, there he is now!” Jimin says, looking toward the hallway where Hoseok had just come out of. And it’s true. Hoseok looks just plain sickly. He’s walking hunched into himself, like he’s trying to make himself smaller. He is pale, but not the good white sugar pale of Yoonji. Rather, he is the grayish pale of a hospital patient. He has huge dark circles around his eyes, and he looks pinched, like he lost weight rapidly.

     “Hobi-hyung,” Jimin says. “Do you want to practice some dance with me? We could get coffee afterwards at that place you really like!”

     Hoseok looks at Jimin with a smile that could not mask the pain it took to display it. “Nah. I think I’m just going to go for a short walk. I don’t feel like having company right now.” He opens the front door and exits, locking the door behind him.

     Namjoon, who had just been quietly observing, starts, “Well, I can see that it’s a bit weird. But I don’t think-”

     “Hyung!” Jimin interrupts. “It’s not just that. I’m his roommate. I’ve seen and heard things that make me very worried. Please, Joonie-hyung! I think something’s wrong, but everytime I try to ask or even express any concern, Hobi-hyung just brushes me off!

     Namjoon stays quiet, looking at Jimin’s indeed concerned face, and states, “Okay. Let’s notify the rest of the group. We’ll tell them we think there’s something wrong with Hoseok-hyung and ask them to keep a watch on him, in case something happens.”

-------------------------

     Hoseok is standing in the living room. The members were planning to go out, but Hoseok decided to stay at the dorm. Taehyung, remembering Namjoon’s words to keep an eye on Hoseok, stays back as well. The other members leave, hoping nothing happens.

     Taehyung is sitting on the couch. “And, hyung. When Jungkookie said that, I got mad. I mean, I’m his hyung! I deserve respect! But like the clever person I am, I decided to get back at him by playing a prank on him!” Taehyung finishes excitedly. But with no response from Hoseok, whose back is turned to him, Taehyung loses his enthusiasm and replaces it with concern. “Hyung?”

     Hoseok starts, and swerves his head towards Taehyung, his body staying in the same place. “Yeah? Uh, sorry,” he says timidly.

     “No, it’s fine. But you know you can sit on the couch, right?” Taehyung says, still looking at him with concern, gesturing to the open space next to him on the couch.

     Hoseok gives a small smile. “I’m fine, Taehyung. Thanks for asking,” he says while turning his head back around.

     Taehyung starts again. “Okay. Uh, did you know I just bought a new Gucci item? Its really cool, if I do say so myself. And it- HYUNG!!!”

     Taehyung jumps up to kneel next to Hoseok who was now unconscious on the floor. Taehyung starts saying over and over “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god” while he grabs his phone and dials Namjoon’s number.

     “Namjoon-hyung? Get everyone back here right now! Hoseok-Hyung just fainted!”

-------------------------

     The members were in the hospital room.

     “What do you mean you don’t know what caused it!” Yoongi says angrily to the doctor. They’re standing around the hospital bed where Hoseok was laid, and they had just been told that the doctors have no idea what happened to him.

     “Calm down, Yoongi-ah! He hasn’t been eating well lately. Maybe that’s the cause?” Seokjin says hopefully.

     The doctor shakes his head. “You’re correct, but he has enough nutrition that it could not have caused his fainting.”

     “So you really have no idea?” Seokjin says, losing his hope very fast.

     The doctor sadly shakes his head again. “Not a clue”

     “Then get another doctor in here that actually knows what they’re doing!” Yoongi yells.

     “We’ve sent for all the doctors and nurses in this hospital. No one has any clue why he collapsed, or even why he had those symptoms you were previously talking about.”

     “Not one person knows? ” Seokjin says faintly, his knees buckling.

     Then the dim mood was cut by a harsh breath that had come from the bed. The members crowd around the bed, watching carefully, their breaths held. A moment passes. Then Hoseok opens his eyes.

     Jimin says cheerfully, “Hoseok’s awake! He’s awa-” only to suddenly be cut off by Hoseok screaming at the top of his lungs, his hands moving to clutch roughly at his head, his body thrashing on the bed.

     The doctor moves to restrain Hoseok. “You six need to leave right now!” he says to the shocked members. Four nurses enter, two immediately move to assist in restraining the patient while the remaining two proceed to shove the members out the door, where the door is promptly shut and the members can only hear the muffled sounds of Hoseok yelling and pleading while the medical staff try to calm him down.

     “What was that?” Jungkook says, his mouth moving being the only form of physical action from this unmoving bunch. “Wh-wh-w-why-”

     “I think I can help you,” another voice calmly says, and the members whip their heads to see another doctor.

     “You know why he fell unconscious? Why that happened?” Seokjin stammers out.

     “No, but considering what just happened, I think I know someone who can help. My sister mingles with the supernatural, and she-”

     “Supernatural?!? What on earth are you talking about? Supernatural things don’t exist!” Yoongi says.

     “Believe what you wish,” the mysterious doctor says. “But with what’s happening in there, and that we still don’t know what caused it, I think supernatural things are a reasonable cause.”

     The members are left in a period of silence. “It’s our best shot,” Namjoon says. “We have to try all our options at this point. “ The doctor leaves to arrange for his sister’s visit.

     A mere 30 minutes later, the members are in Hoseok’s hospital room again, only this time accompanied by a woman who definitely does not look like someone who ‘mingles with the supernatural’. Hoseok is now calmly resting, having been administered a sedative. The woman is sitting on a stool next to the bed, holding a hand on Hoseok’s forehead while closing her eyes. After roughly three minutes of this choking silence, she opens her eyes and removes her hand from Hoseok’s head.

     “Well, noona?” Jimin asks.

     She turns to them and states “It’s a mindbreak”

     “What??” is collectively stated by the members. All but Yoongi.

     “What the is a mindbreak?” Yoongi asks.

     The expert continues, not affected by the swearing. “A mindbreak is when the afflictor applies magic to the victim to give them views, thoughts, or opinions that will eventually corrupt the victim’s mind to believing that they are true as well as his own.”

     “How did Hoseok become the victim?” Seokjin cries out, concerned.

     “It can happen in many ways, but in his case, it was embedded in something he ate.”

     “What are we doing? We shouldn’t be asking these questions. We should be asking how to save him!” Jungkook says forcefully, looking at the noona with determination.

     The woman smiles. “You need to enter his brain and save him.”

     “Wait, say that again!?” Taehyung states.

     “You need to enter his brain and save him.”

     “How will we do that?” Seokjin asks.

     The woman answers. “I can use magic to transport you into his brain. There, you will need to search for him and do as he asks. Don’t worry, he will look just like his outside self. It’ll be easy.”

     Namjoon has a concern. “Won’t the corruption affect the version of him in his mind?” he asks wisely.

     “It’ll affect his mind, but the version of him you’ll find in there is the true Hoseok, that will exist in there even if the corruption fully takes over. That’s how it works. The true self is no longer able to control the mind, but it’s still there.

     The members all look at one another. “We’ll do it,” Yoongi says confidently. When the members start protests and hesitations, he shuts them up with a “It’s Hoseok. We have to do it.”

     The members once again look around, then start to slowly nod.

     The woman smiles. “Now close your eyes and get ready.”

     Seokjin, who’s standing between Jungkook and Yoongi, grabs one of their hands each to hold in his own. The other members watch, and then proceed to grab hands with the person next to them. They close their eyes.

     The woman stand, facing them. “Now, in three. Two. One.” She then snaps.

     The members feel a pull that seems to be dragging them forwards to the point that they nearly lose balance. Then it suddenly stops. They open their eyes. And they know that they are no longer in the outside world.